THE YEAR THAT CHANGED SPAIN The changes of 1492 were preceded by key religious, cultural, and military events in the earlier decades and even centuries in the region. For one thing, the Iberian Peninsula was divided between different kingdoms and powers for much of the Middle Ages, and was home to competing faiths, among them, most notably, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
A Jewish community had existed on the peninsula since ancient times, but the Jews experienced moments of acceptance and harsh treatment under Muslim and Christian rule in Iberia. The Muslim armies, in turn, gradually conquered most of the Iberian Peninsula beginning in the early eighth century, leaving a lasting imprint on the cultural and artistic fabric of the territory. The northern regions of the peninsula, however, among them the…
